The six days that remain before the Blue Jackets resume play at the New Jersey Devils might seem like an eternity while watching the Winter Olympics.

Players want to play, as they say, and that goes for Nathan Horton.

But the forward isn’t complaining. He’s glad to finally have the practice time.

“It’s a good thing,” said Horton, who missed six months after offseason shoulder surgery before making his season debut on Jan. 2. “I jumped right back in there, and my body was pretty sore. I was still trying to catch up to everybody.”

Horton’s practice time consisted mostly of noncontact morning skates in the days leading up to his debut and afterward. But Horton, the Blue Jackets’ top offseason free-agent signing, will likely close some of that distance in the next week.

“Eight days of practice, just getting acclimated with the guys, that’s going to help,” center Mark Letestu said. “The reps he was getting before came when he was just getting his legs back and getting into contact. This is probably going to be a mini-training camp for him. But it’s coming. He’s working.”

Horton has four goals, 11 points and a plus-3 rating in his first 18 games as a Blue Jacket. Two of those goals decided games, including the first. It came during his debut in a 2-0 win at the Phoenix Coyotes. But Horton tailed off toward the end of January, when a stretch of penalty-prone games morphed into an eight-game goalless streak.

He finished strong before the break, however, with four assists and a plus-4 rating his final four games, during which Horton said he could feel the rust coming loose.

During the break, he spent several days with his family at the home he keeps in south Florida.

“It was re-energizing,” he said. “I’m feeling a lot better.”

That might bode well for the Blue Jackets. Horton is expected to be a central figure in a final, frantic push for the postseason. He is the only Blue Jacket to have played for a Stanley Cup, winning one with Boston in 2011 and playing for another last season. He has played in 43 playoff games, second on the team to Marian Gaborik (54).

“That’s going to be huge coming down the stretch here in pressure time,” forward R.J. Umberger said. “He just has a knack for playing in games and big moments. Even if he’s at 75 percent, that’s a good 75 percent for us.”

With a base to finally build from, Horton hopes it’s closer to 100.

“I have to be better and I’m going to try my best to do all I can to make sure of that,” Horton said. “If we play the way we want and the way we can, we’re going to be in. It’s like the start of the year for me. I’m going to be a lot more comfortable.”

Slap shots

The Blue Jackets will follow two days of practice in the Ice Haus with off-ice workouts and fitness testing today. They will resume skating on Saturday. … Letestu was once a teammate of goaltender Shannon Szabados, who won a gold medal with Canada’s women’s team yesterday in Sochi. Szabados and Letestu were members of the Bonnyville Pontiacs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League in 2006. Szabados was the first woman to play in the league.

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